Daddy
by A. Windsor
Summary: A pair of vignettes about Leo and his family in my series. You don't have to read my series to get it though. A light, fluffy now twoposter for those who miss our angel. A second story added by popular demand.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Piper or Leo, but I do own Amelia and Nick, their kids from one of my series of fanfiction.  
  
This is just a short vignette I started a long time back and finished after the season finale, to get me some Leo action. (oh, that sounded wrong.)  
  
"Daddy! Daddy wake up!"  
  
I groaned and rolled over to see my five-year-old son looking at me with his mother's brown eyes.  
  
"What is it, Nicholas?"  
  
"I wanna play catch! You promised today we'd play all day if I passed my colors test! And I got a hun'erd. So we gotta play!"  
  
Beside me Piper giggled.  
  
"You did promise, Daddy," she teased.  
  
"Okay," I sighed, swinging my legs out from under the covers and getting to my feet.  
  
"Let Daddy get dressed, Nick, and then we'll go."  
  
"Yay! I'm gonna go tell Sissy!" he cried, running out of the room in his baseball pajamas.  
  
"You're such a good daddy," Piper laughed, beckoning me over after I'd dressed and giving me a gentle kiss. "Now go play catch!"  
  
I laughed and went to meet Nick downstairs.  
  
"'Morning, Daddy," Nick's older sister Amelia greeted from her place in the living room. "Going to play catch with Nick?"  
  
"Yeah," I told my ten-year-old daughter, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "See you later."  
  
"Have fun," she said, sarcasm heavy in her voice.  
  
~*~*~  
  
My glove was sitting on the table ready to go and outside I could hear the thud of leather on leather as Nick threw the ball up and down on his own in the back yard. I slipped my glove on and went out to play.  
  
Nick was dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, a ragged navy baseball cap sitting atop his brown hair. He was blessed with his mother's eyes and hair, as well as her warm smile. But his attitude, that was all his own.  
  
"Hey Daddy, catch!" He threw the ball underhand and it landed firmly in my glove.  
  
"Nice throw, buddy. See if you can catch this one," I praised, throwing one gently overhand.  
  
We fell into a nice pattern, only faltering sometimes and usually on my turn. Then one accidentally flew over his head.  
  
"Oops!" he giggled. "I'll get it."  
  
I grinned at him as he opened his hand. The ball disappeared in white- blue lights and then reappeared in his outstretched hand.  
  
"You like that power, don't you?"  
  
"Yep," he giggled, tossing the ball again.  
  
~*~*~  
  
About an hour later Piper appeared at the back door.  
  
"How about you guys come in and have some breakfast?" she grinned.  
  
"Pancakes?!" Nick cried, running to her and giving her a warm hug.  
  
"Nope, waffles."  
  
"Same thing," I laughed, following him in, stopping to give Piper a warm kiss on the cheek.  
  
"Nicholas Victor, take that hat off in the house," Piper scolded. He removed it quickly, mumbling an apology and slipping into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. His All Stars kicked against the table leg as he waited for his breakfast.  
  
"Ames! Want some breakfast?" my wife called into the living room.  
  
"Nah, I had some breakfast when I woke up. I can't eat this close to basketball practice," came the answer.  
  
I grinned.  
  
"Speaking of which, boys, I need to drop Amelia off at practice in a half hour. Will you two go to the grocery store for me?"  
  
I choked on the waffle she'd laid before me and managed, "What?"  
  
She laughed. "Oh Leo, you'll be fine. Nick knows where everything is and you'll have a list. I promise, you'll survive." She came up behind me and whispered in my ear. "Please. You'll get a reward."  
  
I caved. "What do you say, Nick?"  
  
"Yep yep. We got it," he happily chirped as his mama cut his waffle for him.  
  
"Then I guess we'll help Mama out."  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Okay. Milk?"  
  
"Check," Nick chirped, looking into the cart.  
  
"Bread?"  
  
"That, too," Nick said. "Daddy, we got everything on the list 'cept one."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"More mandrake."  
  
I internally groaned. "Where can we find that, Nick?"  
  
"China Town," Nicholas grinned, pulling his hat down further on his head to avoid my exasperated look.  
  
"Mandrake isn't on the list, Nicholas," I told him, checking the list over again.  
  
"It isn't?" he asked, pushing the bill off of his face and poking his head between my arms to read the list that was balanced precariously on the cart. "But Mama and me used it all yesterday."  
  
"Nick, is this just an excuse to go to China Town?"  
  
"No!" Nick cried, his big brown eyes widening and a look of hurt forming across his face. "Mama said we needs it!"  
  
I sighed, looking down at him as he turned his puppy dog face up at me. "Okay. Check out, then China Town."  
  
He smiled widely and began to push the cart, throwing all of his weight into it.  
  
"Let me get that, little man," I laughed, helping him push it along.  
  
~*~*~  
  
After hours of being utterly lost in China Town, we picked up some mandrake root and headed home in Piper's Jeep. Nicholas sat in the back seat, whistling with the radio. It was old junk from the turn of the century, but Nick absolutely adored it. I sometimes had to wonder what planet he came from. Amelia vocalized that question often. Nick's response was always the same. "Pluto."  
  
We pulled up into the driveway and I helped Nick out of the car.  
  
"Go tell your mom we need some help with the groceries."  
  
"No! I can do it!" he objected, closing his eyes and pointing from the back of the Jeep to inside the house. The bags disappeared from the back, but whether or not they made it to their destination remained to be seen.  
  
"Nicholas! Stop scaring me like that!" Amelia's cry came from the porch as she opened the front door. "I was telling Mama about my awesome play when the groceries suddenly land on my head!"  
  
Nick covered his mouth and giggled.  
  
"You're good," I laughed, hitting the bill of his baseball cap so it went down to his nose. "Now apologize."  
  
"Sorry Amelia!" Nick cried.  
  
"Oh, it's fine," Amelia sighed. She was dressed for basketball practice and had her dirty blonde hair pulled off of her neck in a sweaty ponytail. As we passed her to go into the house, Nick held his nose and waved the air in front of him.  
  
"Stinky. Take a shower."  
  
Amelia opened her mouth to object and raised her hand to hit her brother when she caught a whiff of herself. "Nicholas is right. I'll be upstairs." She took off up the stairs, in hopes that one of her aunts wasn't using the shower and then she'd have to take a cold one downstairs.  
  
"You boys were gone an awfully long time," Piper smiled. "Did Nick trick you into going to China Town?"  
  
I looked down at my young son, who was grinning up at me with his bright white smile.  
  
"Yes," I said through clenched teeth. "He said you needed some mandrake root."  
  
Piper laughed. "And I did, but there's a store a lot closer than China Town and Nicholas knows that."  
  
Nick merely giggled, removing his hat before his mother could say anything and dashing down the stairs into de-Woogy-fied basement that served as a bedroom that he shared with his sister.  
  
"He got you good," Piper teased, wrapping her arms around my waist and resting her head on my chest.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. The kid's from Pluto, what can I say?" I grinned, returning her embrace and thinking that I had to be the most blessed man to ever exist. 


	2. Twenty years later

Author's Note: Due to popular demand, I've got another segment. This is set twenty years later at Nicholas Wyatt's wedding. Still told from Leo's point of view. There are reference to characters and events from Nirvana and The Power of One (the cousins, Phoebe's husbands, the Chases) so if you like my Halliwells, read those stories, located on my profile.  
  
Twenty years later.  
  
I still see that crazy little kindergartner when I look into my son's brown eyes. He has changed so much since then. Nicholas went from incessant chatter to silence and back again. His taste in music, his bright smile, and his caring personality have stayed the same, even as a twenty-five year old husband to be. It is almost strange watching him fidget in a well pressed tux, waiting nervously to head towards the altar, totally grown up and ready to start a family of his own.  
  
I didn't think it would be as hard this time to let one of my children go. My daughter Amelia married seven years ago to a wonderful woman, Dylan Radcliffe. I'm already a grandfather to seven year old Katie and the newborn twins, Scout and Atticus. I thought giving away my little girl would be the hardest thing I'd ever done.  
  
I was wrong.  
  
Maybe it is because he didn't move far for college and afterwards he moved down the street with his cousins Mika and Tia. Maybe it is because we still play catch on Sunday afternoons and go grocery shopping for his mother. Maybe it is because I've never really had to let my best friend go.  
  
There will probably be little change after the commotion surrounding the wedding dies down. He'll still live down the street, this time with a wife as well as his cousins. He'll still come over for Sunday dinner. He'll still help his mom out around the house.  
  
But it won't be the same. My little boy has been taken over by a smart and capable young man. Now he has a wife to take care of and children will probably be along in the near future. He doesn't need me any more.  
  
His best man, best friend and surrogate younger brother, seventeen year old Requiem Chase, cracks a joke to lighten his mood and Nicholas breaks into a grin. Both of his uncles (Phoebe's husband and ex-husband) approach him as they enter the room. His aunt's former husband Keenan Scott shakes his hand and gives him words of encouragement. Cole Turner pats him on the back and offers congratulations before both men leave the room. Then Requiem's parents and younger brother approach Nick. The Chase family has meant a lot to my son as he's grown up. Anna has been with him since birth, just another part of the family. Duncan was another uncle, always ready to shoot hoops or kick the soccer ball around. Requiem and his brother Sullivan have been the brothers he never had, people to help put weight to his argument in a house controlled by women.  
  
Anna hugs him close and kisses his cheek, whispering "Good luck."  
  
"I hope I don't need it."  
  
"Don't feel bad. I just came from the bride's room and Cassie is just as nervous as you are," her warm smile assures him and then Mr. and Mrs. Chase have left the room.  
  
The groomsmen, Requiem, Sullivan and few other of Nicholas's friends, leave to begin their escorting duties. This leaves my son and I. Piper, Amelia, and the kids are visiting the bride's room first and they'll soon be along to wish their son, brother, and uncle well. But now it is just us.  
  
"I'm not losing a son, I'm gaining a daughter," I quote the old cliché.  
  
"You seem to be accruing those." His smile is nervous and tentative as he teases back in reference to his beloved big sister.  
  
"Tell me about it," I chuckle, "I still only have one son. I like it that way."  
  
"Me too, Dad."  
  
A comfortable silence settles over us as I look him over. Memories flash before my eyes: his youthful voice singing along with the radio, his mischievous grin as he walked through China Town with his little hand firmly in mine, that raggedy blue hat pushed down over his eyes and his Converse All-Stars pounding the ground as he ran to catch a pop-fly. The memories fade and he is back in front of me now. His brown hair is no longer in his eyes, but closely cut. Instead of blue jeans and a t-shirt, he is looking very handsome in a tuxedo and white bow tie. He is now only barely an inch shorter than me and I look him square in the eye. Those soulful brown eyes are still the same.  
  
Nick clears his throat and looks down after meeting my eyes, fiddling with his rose on his lapel. "So, Cass and I will be over for dinner next Sunday night."  
  
I can't help but smile. "We look forward to seeing you. Your sister will still be in town. She leaves a week from Monday. Your mother wants more time to spoil those grandkids."  
  
"Of course Mama does," Nick grinned. "Two girls and a boy, the X-chromosome wins again."  
  
Placing a hand on his shoulder, I smile, "It's the Elders' way of punishing us. Girls are much harder to raise."  
  
"Don't let Ames hear you." He suddenly pulls me into a strong hug. "Thanks for getting me this far."  
  
Tears momentarily stung my eyes. "You're a good kid, Nicholas. You made it easy. Just do well for yourself from now on."  
  
"I love you, Dad."  
  
"Uncle Nick!" Katie cries in delight as she bursts through the door and wriggles her way between us. Little Katherine Scarlett is the picture of her grandmother.  
  
"Hanging in there, Nicholas?" Amelia asks. My daughter held one of the twins in her arms, the light haired little girl Scout Abigail. My wife held the darker haired Atticus Jonah.  
  
"As best I can. I've never been more nervous in my life. Even when you were chasing after me in an angry huff."  
  
She matches his playful grin. "At least you've learned to control your powers. It wouldn't be good to have them acting up mid-ceremony."  
  
"That would please Cassandra's parents," Piper puts in. She hands Atticus to me and embraces her son. "I'm so proud of you, Nick."  
  
"I love you, Mama," he kisses her cheek.  
  
"You know I love you," she responds, pulling away with tears in her eyes that were so similar to his.  
  
"My turn!" Amelia smiles, giving Scout to Piper.  
  
She hugs her brother closely. "Call me for marital advice. I know women much better than you do."  
  
Nick laughs. "I'll remember that, Amelia."  
  
"Love you, Nicholas," Amelia winks as she pulls away and stands on her tiptoes to kiss his forehead. Katie runs into her arms and is hefted onto her hip.  
  
"I love you too Uncle Nick!" is her enthusiastic cry.  
  
"And I love you, Katie Scarlett. And you, big sis."  
  
"It's time," Paige and Phoebe tells us from the doorway, breaking the moment.  
  
"Here goes nothing," Nick grins, pulling on his jacket for the last time and leading us out of the door. The rest of the group hugs Nicholas one last time and then heads towards the back of Cassie's family's church to be seated. That leaves me to walk him to the side door.  
  
"I'm going to give you one last piece of fatherly advice and then I'll leave you alone to enjoy your wedding day. Cherish your wife. She is going to be your best friend and partner. When no one else is there, she will be. Believe me from over thirty years of experience, don't let that go."  
  
"I won't, Dad. I love her," he says with his familiar, open honesty.  
  
I hug him quickly. "I love you, son. Good luck. I'll see you on the other side."  
  
Nicholas tosses me another one of those winning smiles he's inherited from his mother and ducks through the door.  
  
His five year old self appears behind him and giggles and waves at me before disappearing as quickly as he came.  
  
"'Bye, little man. See you China Town." 


End file.
